Hello friends,

This week on the Spiritual Misfits podcast we’re sharing a really important conversation.

Robyn van der Zee is a psychologist and counsellor who spends a significant amount of time helping people process experiences of spiritual abuse and trauma. Robyn joined us to provide a deeper understanding of trauma and abuse in spiritual contexts, as well as to discuss ways we can establish safer communities and spaces for healing.

If you have personally experienced these things then you may want to take a moment to work out whether it’s helpful for you to listen to this episode. Robyn does offer some great words for survivors and we don’t go into any detailed situations — but we acknowledge this is sensitive territory. So if you need to listen with a safe person, or if you need to reach out to someone after listening please do. Or if you decide you’re not ready to listen to this conversation right now, that is totally fine. 

If you lead or help shape any church or organisation we strongly encourage you to sit with this conversation and consider how it might inform the way you approach these issues in your context. It is our hope that this episode could be a resource that is shared around to create greater awareness and prevent more harm. 

Click here to listen to this episode, or use the player below (episode title: Robyn van der Zee on Spiritual Abuse and Trauma).

Sara M. Saleh on Palestine, liberation and poetry Spiritual Misfits Podcast

Sara M. Saleh is a human rights lawyer, community organiser, writer and the daughter of migrants from Palestine, Egypt and Lebanon. She has many very impressive achievements to her name including being the first poet to win both the Australian Book Review’s Peter Porter Poetry Prize and the Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize, which she did back to back in 2020 and 2021. Sara’s debut novel Songs for the Dead and the Living is out now (link below where you can buy).  Sara is one of the voices that has been a helpful guide for me in recent weeks as we’ve seen the Israeli government cause enormous levels of destruction and loss of human life in Gaza. This conversation is really helpful for decoupling anti-zionism and anti-semitism and understanding why it’s so dangerous when these are conflated. It’s so obvious, as you’ll hear throughout this conversation that Sara holds a fierce commitment to any group of oppressed and suffering people, while striving for solutions that do not simply flip who is oppressing who. The way she speaks about liberation is so generous and beautiful and just. We talk about the limits of identity politics and the deep solidarity that can be found in shared values — and there’s just so much wisdom here. Listen deeply, share widely, and take whatever actions you can — great or small — in the direction of justice.  Sara’s website:https://www.saramsaleh.com/Buy ‘Songs for the Dead and the Living’:https://www.booktopia.com.au/songs-for-the-dead-and-the-living-sara-m-saleh/book/9781922848536.htmlFollow Sara on Instagram: @instasaranade‘A guide to Palestine for beginners’ (this is a fantastic doc): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lgiFGdUKiPfzC-xo6LZQXvGNIXGHyMYsGCA035kKc80/mobilebasicDonate to the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network: https://apan.org.au/donate/Sign up to our mailing list:https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/Join our online Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcastSupport the pod:https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/Send us an email: Spiritualmisfits@outlook.comView all episodes and access transcripts at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com
  1. Sara M. Saleh on Palestine, liberation and poetry
  2. Noah Small on the nature of God, love and kindness (a little episode with big heart)
  3. Radhika Sukumar-White on lament, suffering and inclusive community
  4. Michael Frost & Shane Meyer-Holt on the other side of 'mega'
  5. Mikali Anagnostis and Gabi Cadenhead on Gen-Z spirituality and Marion St

Leave a Reply

%d